Khan to call Malignaggi-Judah fight for Showtime

Both Malignaggi, who turned 33 last month, and Judah, who turned 36 in October, have suffered defeat at the hands of Khan, who will call their fight alongside Brian Kenny, Al Bernstein, Mauro Ranallo and Jim Gray at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Malignaggi (32-5, 7 knockouts) lost to Khan by 11th-round knockout as a junior welterweight at New York’s Madison Square Garden in May of 2010. Judah (42-8, 29 KOs) was stopped in the fifth round by Khan as a 140-pounder at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas in July of 2011.

“I’m really looking forward to working with Showtime on another top draw bill. The main event between Paulie and Zab will be a Brooklyn blockbuster with two of boxing’s most skilled fighters,” Khan said in a Showtime press release. The British star will replace Malignaggi, a regular Showtime commentator, for Saturday’s bout.

“Having shared the ring with both men, together, I know that they will bring speed, power, ring craft and heart to the table. Fighting in their own back yard, neither one of them will want to leave that ring as the loser. So it makes for an extremely intriguing matchup between two, world-class operators.”

Malignaggi is trying to rebound from June’s split-decision WBA welterweight title loss to Adrien Broner.

Malignaggi had won the belt in April of 2012 with a ninth-round stoppage of previously unbeaten Ukrainian Vyacheslav Senchenko, who represented Malignaggi’s fifth straight victory as a welterweight during a run that had included two knockout wins.

Prior to facing Broner, Malignaggi had earned a split-decision victory over Mexico City’s Pablo Cesar Cano at Barclays Center in October of 2012.

Judah hammered previously undefeated Vernon Paris on the way to a ninth-round TKO victory in March of 2012 before rising from an eighth-round knockdown to give Danny Garcia this past April prior to losing a close unanimous decision to RING, WBA and WBC 140-pound champion at Barclays Center.

“The undercard is filled with some similarly great clashes, with which could headline on their own,” said Khan. “IBF world champion Devon Alexander versus Shawn Porter, Sakio Bika defending his WBC world title against the undefeated Anthony Dirrell, and Austin Trout up against Erislandy Lara. These are the types of fights that can turn into edge-of-the-seat thrillers.”